AUSTRALIAN FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE, 2008

The Shine Dome, Canberra, 21-22 February

Welcome
by Professor Kurt Lambeck PresAA, FRS

Since the inaugural meeting in 2003, these Frontiers of Science symposia have aimed to open up otherwise narrow channels of research and to generate networks and collaborations across research boundaries that will live into the future. Thus the symposia provide an exceptional opportunity for emerging leaders of science in this country namely, you to get together and to develop new research directions that cross disciplinary boundaries. So your challenge is to create something that is quite new and different from your usual experience in science symposia.

As I think you all would recognise, all the fields of science are leaping ahead in their own particular directions, leading to discoveries that all have the potential to change our lives. But at the same time there is a growing recognition that all things, in the end, are connected. And that is what we want to try and ensure: that the various disciplines are bridged.

Physics, for example, underlies medical technology; it also helps us to explain geological processes, which in turn tells us something about planetary systems, which again leads to astronomy, whose fundamental discoveries lead back to physics. There are many examples of where all the disciplines come together, and perhaps there is none better than in the climate area, where if you don't know physics, you don't know any chemistry, you don't know any biology or Earth science, you are not going to make much progress.

Thus interaction between researchers from different disciplines becomes ever more important, and this is occurring at the same time that demands on your time to focus on your own research are also become greater. In past, gentler times, when science communities were smaller and the advances of science were less rapid, this interaction between disciplines tended to occur in the bars and tea rooms or faculty rooms. But my own observation is that over the years such opportunities are decreasing.

So the Frontiers program is an attempt to stimulate this cross-disciplinary discussion and to encourage thinking across disciplines and to develop networks that you can use for your own research careers.

This symposium features some of the most outstanding young Australian scientists, and many of our speakers have been recipients of prizes offered either by the Academy or by other organisations in recent times, or otherwise recognised. These young (and I should say that everything is relative) researchers have been challenged to put together this symposium by choosing the topic, the chairperson and the speaker in their respective sessions. Therefore it is appropriate that this symposium belongs to the future leaders of Australian science. Nevertheless, we older people will be listening attentively.

In anticipation of great results I would like to thank you now, in advance, for your contributions. I would also like to welcome those of you whom we have not been able to fit onto the program but who I am sure would be able to give equally compelling talks if you had been given the opportunity. But you cannot sit back and snooze in your comfortable seats! Your task is going to be to contribute lively and insightful discussion throughout the sessions, and throughout the breaks. Remember, this is an opportunity to open windows not only to current discoveries but also onto visions of some of the cutting-edge developments that will occur in the future, particularly at the boundaries of disciplines.

We realise that in holding a symposium of this kind we can only ever have a small participation from the larger community out there, and it is going to be your task to spread the messages that you hear today, particularly the importance of cross-disciplinary networking.

Over the years the Academy has developed a proud record of supporting Australia's younger scientists. This is our third Frontiers program since 2003. Through financial constraints and competition from other programs we have not been able to hold them as regularly as we would like, but we are certainly planning to make them a much more regular event in the years to come, along with our other programs that focus on young researchers.

Only last week we had a meeting of over 60 young researchers who were exposed to expert advice that will help to enhance their careers. This was done through a workshop entitled Enhancing the quality of the experience of postdocs and early career researchers, a subject whose importance was very much emphasised by the presence of the Minister for Science, Senator Carr, and of the heads of both the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. The evaluation and feedback from that workshop will be used to create best-practice guidance for research management that can be used by every Australian scientist, and you will be seeing some of that material in the future.

The Academy also organises the annual High Flyers Think Tank program, the most recent one being on extreme natural hazards. And there are a whole lot of other programs going on throughout the year. The importance of many of these programs is that the outcomes finish up as reports on the desks of high-level science policy decision-makers, including for example the Prime Minister's Science, Innovation and Engineering Council.

In addition, the Academy facilitates programs to increase strategic alliances between young Australian researchers and scientists in the US, Europe and Asia. These lead to visits to each other's research laboratories, joint research publications and long-term collaboration, and these of course contribute very much to the development of the researcher's career as well as promoting Australia's science internationally.

You may ask why we do this your image of the Academy is probably of a body of old men who sit around and pontificate on things! The real reason we do this is that the future of Australian science is something that the Academy is extremely concerned about. Our vision is that Australia deserves a prosperous, healthy, educated and vibrant society, one that is characterised by a diversified economy, based not only on the exploitation of natural resources but also on its intellectual resources. We believe that such a society must be strongly science and technology based, and it must be internationally competitive in the creation and the use of knowledge. To achieve this, where better to start than by ensuring that researchers have resources and build their networks within their own fields and across fields, particularly for that early period of their careers when they are most productive and when they are also challenged by lots of other pressures in life.

So that is, in a sense, what we are about. What you will witness here today and tomorrow is part of that broader aim.